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authorCaz Yokoyama <Caz.Yokoyama@intel.com>2013-09-05 16:42:39 -0700
committerGreg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>2013-09-26 13:52:24 -0700
commit8d49751580db804a02caf6a5b7cebe2ff26c0d7e (patch)
tree69c8a70bbbed2d4b56efe7be87a44b62286d4c14 /Documentation/mic/mic_overview.txt
parent2141c7c5ee677014023cb50c793f91e85f44d2ea (diff)
downloadlinux-8d49751580db804a02caf6a5b7cebe2ff26c0d7e.tar.bz2
Sample Implementation of Intel MIC User Space Daemon.
This patch introduces a sample user space daemon which implements the virtio device backends on the host. The daemon creates/removes/configures virtio device backends by communicating with the Intel MIC Host Driver. The virtio devices currently supported are virtio net, virtio console and virtio block. Virtio net supports TSO/GSO. The daemon also monitors card shutdown status and takes appropriate actions like killing the virtio backends and resetting the card upon card shutdown and crashes. Co-author: Ashutosh Dixit <ashutosh.dixit@intel.com> Co-author: Sudeep Dutt <sudeep.dutt@intel.com> Signed-off-by: Ashutosh Dixit <ashutosh.dixit@intel.com> Signed-off-by: Caz Yokoyama <Caz.Yokoyama@intel.com> Signed-off-by: Dasaratharaman Chandramouli <dasaratharaman.chandramouli@intel.com> Signed-off-by: Nikhil Rao <nikhil.rao@intel.com> Signed-off-by: Harshavardhan R Kharche <harshavardhan.r.kharche@intel.com> Signed-off-by: Sudeep Dutt <sudeep.dutt@intel.com> Acked-by: Yaozu (Eddie) Dong <eddie.dong@intel.com> Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
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+An Intel MIC X100 device is a PCIe form factor add-in coprocessor
+card based on the Intel Many Integrated Core (MIC) architecture
+that runs a Linux OS. It is a PCIe endpoint in a platform and therefore
+implements the three required standard address spaces i.e. configuration,
+memory and I/O. The host OS loads a device driver as is typical for
+PCIe devices. The card itself runs a bootstrap after reset that
+transfers control to the card OS downloaded from the host driver.
+The card OS as shipped by Intel is a Linux kernel with modifications
+for the X100 devices.
+
+Since it is a PCIe card, it does not have the ability to host hardware
+devices for networking, storage and console. We provide these devices
+on X100 coprocessors thus enabling a self-bootable equivalent environment
+for applications. A key benefit of our solution is that it leverages
+the standard virtio framework for network, disk and console devices,
+though in our case the virtio framework is used across a PCIe bus.
+
+Here is a block diagram of the various components described above. The
+virtio backends are situated on the host rather than the card given better
+single threaded performance for the host compared to MIC, the ability of
+the host to initiate DMA's to/from the card using the MIC DMA engine and
+the fact that the virtio block storage backend can only be on the host.
+
+ |
+ +----------+ | +----------+
+ | Card OS | | | Host OS |
+ +----------+ | +----------+
+ |
++-------+ +--------+ +------+ | +---------+ +--------+ +--------+
+| Virtio| |Virtio | |Virtio| | |Virtio | |Virtio | |Virtio |
+| Net | |Console | |Block | | |Net | |Console | |Block |
+| Driver| |Driver | |Driver| | |backend | |backend | |backend |
++-------+ +--------+ +------+ | +---------+ +--------+ +--------+
+ | | | | | | |
+ | | | |User | | |
+ | | | |------|------------|---------|-------
+ +-------------------+ |Kernel +--------------------------+
+ | | | Virtio over PCIe IOCTLs |
+ | | +--------------------------+
+ +--------------+ | |
+ |Intel MIC | | +---------------+
+ |Card Driver | | |Intel MIC |
+ +--------------+ | |Host Driver |
+ | | +---------------+
+ | | |
+ +-------------------------------------------------------------+
+ | |
+ | PCIe Bus |
+ +-------------------------------------------------------------+